DINO

• Open waters


  Your best bet would be to catch a glimpse of a sea turtle
• Types of sea turtles

  • hawksbill
  • giant leatherback
• Closer to shore


  Sea snakes and occasionally lizards and crocodilians venture out into the waters
• In the 21st century, a truly Marine reptile is a rare occurrence
• The Mesozoic era was the time when dinosaurs had the run of the land
• The oceans were in fact teeming with marine reptiles unlike anything else that exists today
• Popular media is filled with depictions of these reptiles from long-necked plesiosaurs to the fish like ichthyosaurs, these creatures take their place proudly next to the pterosaurs as some of the most famed organisms of Times Gone by
• These reptiles were not only commonplace in the Seas of the Mesozoic but were extremely diverse
• Turtles and crocodilians existed just as they do in the modern day but some of them would be near unrecognizable
• Plesiosaurs


  • One of the most diverse groups of Mesozoic marine reptiles
  • Ranging hugely in size and form from the long neck Titans we're familiar with to short necked varieties – who during the latter half of the Mesozoic took the throne next to the mighty mosasaurs as the apex predators of the turbulent unforgiving waves
• The Triassic period was a time when weird reptiles were present in every Cove, Bay, Sea, and coastline
• In the world's Waters here groups of reptiles utterly unfamiliar to Modern zoology thrived in huge numbers blossoming into a seemingly infinite range of forms and niches
• The Triassic period was characterized by the sheer diversity of marine reptile groups
• The N Permian Extinction was the single worst mass extinction in the history of planet Earth
• Plenty of marine ecological niches were available to those adaptable enough to take them; this resulted in the reptiles taking Center Stage above the arthropods, temnospondyls,and cartilaginous and lobed fin fishes of the Paleozoic Era
• Placodonts


  • Appearing in the fossil record towards the middle Triassic
  • Bulky, slow moving, sometimes shelled creatures superficially similar to turtles that were highly adapted Molluscavors
  • With specialized crushing teeth to crack the tough shells of bivalves and other Shellfish
• Placodus


  • A three meter long reptile that lived much like a walrus or manatee
  • Its teeth protruded out past the mouth in a circular curve and were perfectly adapted to this derived lifestyle
  • Through the use of heavy bones and voluminous lungs placodus could keep itself submerged with little effort as it sifted through the sand of its Coastal home environment
• Henodus


  • Turtle-like in appearance yet totally unrelated
  • Several authors have likened the lifestyle of this strange reptile with a broad flat shell and crushing beak to that of rays or cephalopods. it would have spent much of its time on the sea floor sweeping its spoon-shaped mouth back and forth through the Sandy sediment, crushing shellfish carapaces as it went Foreign
• Nothosaurs


  • High above the placodonts towards the surface waters swam the nothosaurus
  • These potentially ancient relatives of the plesiosaurs were almost similar in appearance
  • They boasted long necks and Tails. some of them had evolved proto-flippers and they subsisted on diets of fish as they gracefully Whirled and wield through the surf
• Nothosaurus


  • The most famous of the nothosaur group
  • A widespread and successful reptile with fossil remains known from Western Europe to Eastern Asia
  • The long skull equipped with needle-sharp interlocking teeth would have created an effective fish trap allowing this Speedy reptile to snap up its prey with relative ease
  • Likely semi-aquatic the nothosaurus are theorized to have bread on the shorelines and colonies taking to the Seas to feed much like a seal or sea lion would today
• Throughout the course of the Triassic, relatives of the nothosaurus took on more and more plesiosaur-like traits with creatures such as Pistosaurus with its long neck and four flippers taking on a pretty much stereotypical plesiosaur appearance
• Thalattosaurs


  • The thalattosaurs were perhaps some of the strangest of the Triassic marineReptiles
  • With paddle-like Limbs and long tapering snouts tipping their slender frames
  • These reptiles were mostly nothosaur-like fish Hunters with the exception of some genuses
• Zinfusaurus


  • In particular was a true Oddity
  • It possessed a long needle-like snout with which it would have probed the sea floor for fish and shellfish hiding beneath the sand before snapping it up further back along the skull with needle sharp teeth
• Tanystropheus


  • Has become a semi-popular creature associated with early Mesozoic Seas the long-necked Shore reptile who used its colossal sweeping neck as a fishing rod to snap up fish from the surf
  • Recent studies however have shown that tanystropheus was not adapted to a life at sea
• Dinocephalosaurus


  It wasn't large enough to feed in the same way as Tanystropheus but its feeding method would have been equally remarkable to watch in life, approaching Shoals of fish dinocephalosaurus with thrust its neck forward from a retracted position launching its open Jaws forward towards its Target consuming not only the fish but the water surrounding them also. This suction effect would have made it an efficient predator as bizarre as it was graceful
• Atopodentatus


  • This strange erupta region has undergone a significant change since its initial 2014 description
  • First thought to possess a bizarre upward-oriented zipper-like structure on its upper jaw. it is now theorized that this odd animal wielded a broad flat duck-like bill similar and form to the head of a hammerhead shark. it would have used this mouth which would have been lined with chisel-like teeth to sweep left and right along the shore to snap up shellfish and other invertebrates hiding in the sand
• The Triassic period is known specifically for harboring a whole all-star cast of bizarre marine reptiles
• Ichthosaurs


  • The fish lizards
  • A whole host of ichthyosaurs had established themselves in the Seas across the world by the end of the Triassic period. in fact some of these ichthyosaurs were amongst the most spectacular creatures ever to exist let alone some of the most marvelous in their group
• Shastasaurus and Shonisaurus


  • At the time they evolved they were the biggest creatures ever to exist on Planet Earth
  • At 21 meters long, the larger of the two genuses was only slightly shorter than a blue whale, the biggest animal ever to live
  • With an appearance falling somewhere between that of a shark whale and crocodile these gigantic Marine lizards were pretty much untouchable and would have feared little to nothing in the Primitive seas in which they ruled subsisting on a diet of fish and Squid
• Pods of these Giants would have been a truly Majestic sight out in the open Triassic oceans
• The Triassic Seas also saw the establishment of a whole host of other ichthyosaur genuses, some of which were traditionally fish-shaped like mixosaurus, and others that were decidedly more reptilian such as cymbospondylus and pisanosaurus
• Cardo rinkus


  • An early basal member of the ichthyosaur group that is theorized to have been a semi-aquatic transitional member of the group
  • A true ichthyosaur yet one that lived and looked not much like one at all
• Throughout the Mesozoic the ichthyosaurs were an extremely successful group of marine reptiles
• The Jurassic period, specifically its fossil formations along the coastlines of the United Kingdom, are particularly known for being ichthyosaur gold mines and many finely preserved specimens have been Unearthed since the time of marianning – an accomplished fossil collector and paleontologist known for her ichthyosaur discoveries in the early half of the 1800s
• Many of the Jurassic ichthyosaurs were firmly more fish-like in appearance than the more reptilian-looking animals that preceded them in the Triassic
• Ichthyosaurus


  The namesake of the ichthyosaur group, known from Jurassic rocks in Southern England along with a handful of other iconic genuses temnodontosaurus and ophthalmosaurus
• Temnodontosaurus and ophthalmosaurus


  • These creatures would have looked like fish and lived like dolphins yet were in no way related to either
  • With large eyes and Powerful bodies they would have been perfectly adapted to tear through the open oceans after Shoals of fish and Gatherings of squid
  • Using their long spear-like Jaws to entrap individuals with their needle-like teeth
• The ichthyosaur Legacy would come to a gradual end as the Jurassic progressed with just one known but now seemingly invalid genus making it to the Waters of the Cretaceous – Platypterygius
• Platypterygius


  • Known from Australia, North America and the UK
  • This is a waste basket taxon, a name given to the sparse and unknown remains of the ichthyosaurus that made it to the Cretaceous
• By the time the ichthyosaurs had died out, the oceans were anything but void of marine reptiles. The Cretaceous oceans would prove to be filled with some of the most iconic creatures ever to swim